


Understanding is a Beginning

by Wolfling



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, pre season four
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-14
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-23 11:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2546306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfling/pseuds/Wolfling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Malia came through his window in the middle of the night, Stiles nearly had a heart attack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Understanding is a Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [natcat5](https://archiveofourown.org/users/natcat5/gifts).



> I really found myself completely enchanted by this pairing in season four and I'm happy to have had the opportunity to write them. Written for natcat5. I hope you like it! 
> 
> Technically this is set pre season four, but it references things that are shown in that season.

The first time Malia came through his window in the middle of the night, Stiles nearly had a heart attack.

Sleep was something he still didn't take for granted. Given how his sleep patterns had been so completely and totally disrupted by the whole nogitsune episode he wasn't sure if he ever would again. In this particular case all he knew was that he'd been asleep and then he was awake, not exactly sure what had woke him up, only that something had. And generally when that happened it was because of something bad. 

He lay perfectly still, eyes barely open a sliver, as he tried to keep his breathing slow and even as if he was still asleep. He thought he saw something move at the very edge of his peripheral vision and he slowly turned his head to try and see what it was...

Only to meet two glowing blue eyes staring back at him from about four feet away. Stiles yelped and instinctively shoved himself away.... only to fall off the other side of the bed.

"Stiles?" a familiar voice asked, full of a mixture of curiosity and concern.

" _Malia_?" Stiles asked back even as he was flailing about trying to untangle his limbs from the bed sheets. He finally got himself free and propped his arms up on the side of his bed, seeking out the glowing blue eyes again. "Why are you- What's wrong?"

"You fell off the bed," she told him helpfully.

"Yeah, I got that. It's the kind of thing that tends to happen when I wake up and find a stranger hovering over me."

"I'm not a stranger," Malia pointed out as if that was the only point that mattered. Stiles surmised she probably was wearing that slightly adorable 'humans are confusing' expression, but all he could see was her silhouette and glowing blue eyes.

Which was a problem. He would feel much more equipped to deal with this conversation if he could actually _see_ her. "Hold that thought," he said and reached out with a hand, groping around until he was able to find the bedside lamp and click it on. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light and watched her do the same.

"I didn't know it was you because I can't see in the dark," he said a moment later when his eyes had mostly adjusted. 

"Oh," Malia said, sounding slightly sheepish. "I didn't think of that." She moved to sit on the edge of the other side of the bed. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Stiles said as he waved a hand dismissing the apology. "I just could have broken my neck falling out of bed, no big deal." He managed to untangle himself from the bed sheets the rest of the way and climbed to his feet.

"Okay," he said once he was standing. "I'm awake and more or less coherent, which given the time is pretty amazing. Adrenaline is better than coffee that way. What's wrong?"

Malia shook her head, giving him the exact 'humans are confusing' look he had been imagining on her face in the dark. "Nothing's wrong."

"Then why are you climbing through my window at," he glanced at his bedside clock, "oh my god, two in the morning?"

"I wanted to see you," Malia told him as if that was reason enough.

"O...kay," Stiles said hesitantly. He felt like maybe he should be wearing a 'were-coyotes are confusing' expression right about then. "You couldn't wait until morning?" he asked gently, taking extra effort to make sure it didn't sound accusatory. "You would've seen me at school."

In response, Malia reached out, snagged the front of his t-shirt and pulled, unbalancing him and causing him to topple forward onto the bed in an ungainly pile of flailing limbs. Before he could protest though there were warm lips on his. 

"Oh," he said, feeling enlightened if more than a little stunned by the kiss. "You wanted to _see_ me."

He decided it wasn't his fault that he hadn't thought of that immediately. After all, they hadn't actually done anything since Eichen House. Not that Stiles hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about it, what they'd done there, what they'd shared. A _lot_. It was the one good memory he had of that place. 

But given how crazy everything had been back then, he'd been worried that thinking it might have meant something beyond simple comfort in the moment was just him reading too much into it. After all, he knew he was prone to do things like that. And even if he wasn't, with Malia just getting a grip on humanity, he wasn't sure how or even if he should broach the subject. 

But apparently he'd been worrying over nothing, at least as far as his interest being one sided. That much Malia had just made perfectly clear. He shifted onto his side so he was more fully facing her, smiling as he reached out to brush her hair back from her face now that he was pretty sure he was allowed to. "Hi."

She looked back at him with a gaze that felt like it was trying to see all the way down to his soul and then closed the distance between them again for another kiss. This time Stiles was with it enough to kiss back and Malia made a happy little sound in the back of her throat when he did. 

They spent the next little while lazily making out, but when Malia's hand started to slide below the waistband of his pyjama pants, Stiles reluctantly stopped her. 

And then had to bite his tongue to keep from smiling at the look of absolute disappointment she gave him when he did. 

"We can get back to that in a few minutes," Stiles told her, adding _I hope_ silently to himself. "But I really think we need to talk first."

"About what?" Malia asked and the look she gave him then made it pretty clear to Stiles that she really didn't seen any need for talking, that climbing in someone's window for kissing and possibly ( _hopefully_ , Stiles' libido chimed in) sexy times didn't need any explanation or indeed any words at all. 

Part of him -- mostly the aforementioned libido -- wished he could agree, but he just wouldn't feel right going on without ascertaining a few things. Like if there was any ulterior motive for Malia being there, something that might require a different kind of help than making out. So he took a deep breath and asked, "Does your father know where you are?"

Again he got a confused frown from Malia. "No. Why would he?"

"Because most parents tend to want to know the whereabouts of their teenaged offspring," Stiles said. Phrasing it that way made him feel a little less like a hypocrite because his dad did absolutely always want to know where he was, even -- or maybe especially -- when Stiles was doing his damnedest to dodge parental supervision. "Is he going to notice you're gone?"

"Probably not," Malia said with a careless shrug. "He never has before."

It was Stiles' turn to frown. "What do you mean before? Have you been sneaking out a lot?"

"Yeah," Malia replied as if the answer was self evident.

"And he's never noticed?" Stiles persisted because this felt like a problem. No matter how much of an inconvenience it was sometimes dodging parental authority, the fact that he knew his dad cared enough to notice when he was doing so was definitely a good thing.

"No. Or at least he's never said anything." She hesitated, looking vulnerable instead of just confused for the first time since Stiles woke up and spotted her . "We don't talk much," she said haltingly.

"I thought you told Scott things were getting better between you." That had been one of the first things Scott had asked her when he started her 'how to be a were' training. 

"They are," Malia confirmed. "Because we're not talking. I don't have to lie to him as much and he doesn't have to pretend he understands me. We don't talk so we don't have to try."

And that... that made Stiles inexpressibly sad. Even when things were at their worst between him and his dad, before he finally came clean about everything that was really going on, his dad had never given up on trying to understand and reach him. 

He opened his mouth to offer advice, but stopped before he could say anything as he reminded himself that not everyone's dad was as awesome as his. Instead he asked, "Do you _want_ him to understand you?"

"He can't," Malia said bluntly. As if that was all there was to it. Maybe for her it was. 

And that was even sadder.

But before he could say anything else Malia was kissing him again and Stiles didn't have it in him to pull away just then. Instead he tried to put all his feelings about Malia as well as his sympathy for the kind of horrible situation with her dad into what he was doing and when she slid her hand under the waist band of his pyjamas again this time he didn't stop her.

Sexy times, Stiles was happy to confirm, were even better in an actual bed and when not possessed by an ancient evil Japanese fox spirit.

When they were lying together afterwards, basically cuddling in the afterglow, it was Malia who spoke first.

" _You_ understand me," she said as he idly ran his fingers up and down the soft skin of her inner arm.

"I do?" Stiles asked lazily, brain not completely back online yet.

"You do," Malia confirmed. "Or, if you don't, you actually ask questions and do research and stuff until you do. You actually _try_ instead of just looking at me like I'm crazy or.. or..."

He was suddenly getting a much better picture of the situation between Malia and her father. "Broken?" Stiles said softly, gently, wanting to show he was following, but not wanting to think that was what he was calling her.

"Yes," Malia said. "Broken. You don't treat me like I'm broken or, worse, _wrong_."

"You're not _wrong_ ," Stiles told her, surprised a little at the fierceness in his voice. He tried to gentle his tone as he continued. "And you're not crazy. I mean, for someone who spent the last 8 years as a coyote you're amazingly sane. Besides, I think all of us are a little bit broken by now. So if you're a little bit broken too, that just makes you fit in better."

Malia made a thoughtful sound at that. "You think I fit in?"

"Maybe not with your average high school clique but with our particular brand of weird, yeah you totally fit in," Stiles said. Frankly, at this point if someone wasn't at least a little bit weird, Stiles found himself side eyeing them. 

Malia seemed to take that in silently and she stayed silent for so long that Stiles was close to falling back asleep and startled a little when she did speak. "Can I ask you something?" 

"Anything," he said instantly, opening his eyes wide from where they'd started to close.

"Scott's teaching me how to be a coyote again, but there's a lot I need to learn about being human again too." She paused and met his gaze with her own and Stiles thought he saw a hint of uncertainty hidden in the depths of her eyes no matter how confident she sounded. "Would you help me figure the human part out?"

"If that's what you want, of course," Stiles replied, then after a moment's hesitation asked carefully, "Does this mean you're not planning on going back to being a coyote once you figure out how to shift back?"

"I'm not _not_ planning on it," Malia replied, "but I decided everyone was right and maybe I should give being human more of a chance." Even though they were lying practically plastered together she still somehow managed to move a little closer. "I mean, there are parts of it that don't suck."

Stiles found himself grinning. "Like kissing?" he asked. He had almost said 'like sex' but that somehow seemed a little forward even given what they had just been doing a few minutes earlier.

"Like kissing," she confirmed. "And like sex." Okay, maybe it wouldn't have been forward after all, not with Malia. He decided he kind of liked how blunt she was. 

"Yeah," he agreed, sliding a hand lazily along her side. "Sex definitely doesn't suck."

Malia seemed to decide that that required more kissing and Stiles wasn't about to argue. They made out lazily for a little while, this time without either of them trying to make it more than that. It tapered off gradually, leaving them still snuggled together, with Stiles basking in a kind of sleepy contentment he wasn't sure he had ever felt before.

"And this," Malia said softly, idly tracing Stiles' long fingers with her own. "This doesn't suck. When I was a coyote I always slept alone. I like this better."

The off hand observation sent a surprisingly warm feeling through Stiles. "I like this too," he said.

He did like it, liked the whole surreal situation. He liked Malia. Liked her bluntness and her weird animal kingdom point of view. He liked her stubborn determination to learn how to control her coyote abilities and how giddy she got when she actually succeeded at doing so. He liked that she was brave enough to try the whole being human thing after all and that she was willing to ask for help when she knew she needed it. He liked the way she kissed and ran her nails down his back. He liked the feel of her body against his, and the little almost silent gasps she made when he managed to touch her just right. He liked how amazingly strong she was, that she could protect herself, but that she trusted him enough to be vulnerable with him. He liked that she liked him too and for once his liking someone wasn't one sided.

Most of all, he liked that there was a chance for all that liking to grow into something more.

"You staying?" he asked because he didn't want to fall asleep on her if she was planning on leaving.

"Yes," she said firmly, closing her eyes as she settled deeper into the pillows. A moment later she opened them again and frowned at Stiles. "This isn't you trying to get me to leave, is it?"

"No," Stiles replied quickly. "Not at all. I want you to stay. This - this is good." 

He found himself repeating those words a few minutes later when after way too much effort for him to get comfortable enough to fall asleep sharing a bed, they finally ended up spooning, with himself as the little spoon. It wasn't anything he would've predicted but it was good. It was kind of insane and he had no idea how he was going to explain Malia's presence to his dad in the morning, but it was definitely good. Better than good.

It was a beginning.


End file.
